Until we have some idea of how those services will be affected, only suckers will use this game.

:uhh: Or people who don't have caps. Or know how to manage them.

Given that Canadian ISP's have very low caps, on the order of 25 GB/mo, it's a real issue for some. Management or not. Right now, anyone assuming how much data will be used is really just doing that....assuming. This could be like any other online game, where the data requirements are less about size and more about latency. Until the final product is released, we won't know what they are going to be. I would assume that this game will be the same as other games. It won't be about the throughput speeds but about the latency. The data use itself will be tiny.--My domain - Nightfall.net]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27857323Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:31:12 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27857300
Your words. I say :uhh:]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27857300Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:25:04 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27856025
said by jester121:

Until we have some idea of how those services will be affected, only suckers will use this game.

:uhh: Or people who don't have caps. Or know how to manage them. Given that Canadian ISP's have very low caps, on the order of 25 GB/mo, it's a real issue for some. Management or not. --Need-based health care not greed-based health care.]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27856025Wed, 26 Dec 2012 08:30:16 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27855834
said by DKS:

Until we have some idea of how those services will be affected, only suckers will use this game.

Interestingly, Maxis (EA) is addressing the Live Connection Requirement.

Arrogant, aren't they? There are many people who do not have an always on, broadband connection. There are also broadband services with caps and overage charges. Until we have some idea of how those services will be affected, only suckers will use this game. --Need-based health care not greed-based health care.]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27852324Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:39:06 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27851950
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27851950Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:46:58 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27850933
--[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27850933Sun, 23 Dec 2012 13:23:12 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27850701

Hi everyone  Im Lucy Bradshaw and I lead the Maxis Label here at EA. Last week, we held a Reddit Ask Me Almost Anything (AMAA) where we gave fans a chance to speak directly to the development team creating SimCity. First off, I want to personally thank everyone who asked us questions and participated in the event the team really appreciates your feedback. We received some great questions on a range of topics, including the city size, the GlassBox engine powering SimCity, and even how many splines weve reticulated over the years (short answer: a lot).

One particular topic that was brought up during the chat was our decision to require an online connection to play the game. Ive also been talking to fans directly on this subject and I wanted to put some of my thoughts on this here on our blog. I understand why this may be a concern for fans who have been playing SimCity for decades now. Like all of you, Im a long-time SimCity fan. But its not just me  we have several veterans from previous versions of the game here at the Maxis studio, and we are all proud and excited about the game were making and we think youll really love it.

Creating a connected experience has always been a goal for SimCity, and this design decision has driven our development process for the game. This is easily the most ambitious game in the franchise and weve taken great care to make sure that every line of code embodies the spirit of the series. To do this, we knew we had to make sure we put our heart and souls into the simulation and the team created the most powerful simulation engine in its history, the GlassBox Engine. GlassBox is the engine that drives the entire game -- the buildings, the economics, trading, and also the overall simulation that can track data for up to 100,000 individual Sims inside each city. There is a massive amount of computing that goes into all of this, and GlassBox works by attributing portions of the computing to EA servers (the cloud) and some on the player's local computer.

Perhaps Ocean said it best when he said that real cities do not exist in a bubble; they share a region and affect one another. GlassBox does more than just segregate computing tasks, it also allows us to make it so that you can create specialized cities that are visually unique and personalized, and that can be economically integrated into a larger region. Youre always connected to the neighbors in your region so while you play, data from your city interacts with our servers, and we run the simulation at a regional scale. For example, trades between cities, simulation effects that cause change across the region like pollution or crime, as well as depletion of resources, are all processed on the servers and then data is sent back to your city on your PC. Every city in the region is updated every three minutes, which keeps the overall region in sync and makes your decisions in your city relevant to any changes that have taken place in the region.

Running the regional simulation on our servers is something we also use to support features that will make this SimCity even more fun. We use the Sim data to update worldwide leaderboards, where you get to see your city or mayoral standings as compared to the other cities in your region and between all of the regions in the world. And since SimCity is a live service, we're also using the data to create weekly global and local challenges for our players that keep the gameplay fresh and surprising.

We think this is the best SimCity ever and it wouldnt be possible without the technology that powers our game. SimCity was designed to be connected from the ground up. We built the game around GlassBox, which takes the game to another level. And, weve given the player control over how to play. You can set your region to private and never interact with other people, or you can play exclusively with friends or join a public region.

Were entering the final stages of development. We're still tuning and refining the game but already it has that special magic that sucked me into the franchise in the first place. We really look forward to seeing what you will create and how you will Mayor come March 5th.Thanks,Lucy

--Games - GameTech - S.F.Bay - 新]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27850701Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:05:28 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27822246
I like simcity, i think it's a great time filler/waster. But online only? How much will that add to my usage cap?

Game developers need to realize that ISPs want to limit Internet usage, and some have put caps in place.Add to being online only, I don't like the lack of player placed zoning, or the lack of subways.

Maybe it'll be put back into the game at a later date as a value added pack. Meaning you have to pay to unlock this feature.--Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?.]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27822246Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:04:06 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27817986
said by DownLow:

Hmm....I guess I need to work on fixing that (I always liked your brother better)..... ;)

I said I liked you, not that you had good taste. :p ]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27817986Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:03:35 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27816990
said by Babbat:

You could select the zoning density? Was that in 4? I didn't play it much so I may have missed it.

The map is split into regions, which then have about 4 cities within each one. You can control your regions, but the maps are 64x64 instead of the old 128x128. Where as you used to be able to put low, medium, or high density wherever you want, the density is now based on the road it's connected to. Farms are gone, as are subways. I'm not saying that all of the changes are bad, but they leave me concerned, as Maxis has stated that these are permanent.]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27814113Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:06:43 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27813872
said by Babbat:

Be careful. As excited as I am about the prospect of a Simcity 5, this is a reboot. Major gripes by old-timers are the online-only aspect, the small size of towns, not being able to select your zoning density, and other items. I'm still going to give it a chance, but this is not a continuation of Simcity 4.

Any gripes should be taken with a grain of salt right now. The game isn't even out yet. That being said, I am going to be paying attention to this game and hopefully, it will exceed my expectations.--My domain - Nightfall.net]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27813872Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:12:22 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27813844
You could select the zoning density? Was that in 4? I didn't play it much so I may have missed it.]]>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27813844Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:06:22 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27813251
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27813251Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:49:09 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27812464
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27812464Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:58:51 EDTRe: Sim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27812166
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/Re-Sim-City-27812166Tue, 11 Dec 2012 23:04:33 EDTSim Cityhttp://www.dslreports.com/forum/Sim-City-27811920
Sim City (version 5, not titled), due in March of 2013 looks to full of incredibly rich details.